FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT DETECTIVES - PAGE 2

Polk County detectives are investigating the death of a woman whose body was found in a motel room on Saturday. Investigators said 40-year-old Agueda Maldonado was found dead inside a room at the Monticello Motel on U.S. Highway 27 in Dundee about 8:30 a.m. Saturday. Detectives say Maldonado checked into the motel on Feb. 15. They suspect she has been dead for several days. Investigators are calling the death "suspicious. " Maldonado's last known address was on Oak Hollow Drive in Haines City, authorities said.

A man was fatally shot at a Pine Hills area home late Thursday, an Orange County Sheriff's Office spokesman said this morning. The man's identity was not released. The incident occurred on Ironwood Drive, near North Hiawassee Road, about 11:30 p.m., said sheriff's spokesman Jeff Williamson. No other details were released. Check back for updates.

A Marion County man was arrested this week and accused of posting child porn on his Facebook page, Ocala.com is reporting. Arthur Calmer Barnett, 60, of Summerfield was charged with 20 counts of possession of child porn and five counts of transmission of child porn. Read the full story at Ocala.com.

After making a drug arrest in Groveland Friday night, Lake County detectives stumbled on something they hadn't expected: Rattlesnakes. The Lake County Sheriff's Office special investigations unit had a warrant to search a home in the 10500 block of Bay Lake Road as part of a drug investigation and detectives were watching the home when they saw two men leave the house in a white truck about 9:30 p.m. When the detectives stopped the men, they...

Convicted murderer Steve Giddens was a free man for just 16 days before, according to detectives, he killed again. The body of Chandra Gwen Nobles, a blond, blue-eyed 40-year-old, was found behind a strip club on South Orange Blossom Trail around 9 a.m. Jan. 30. She had been strangled. A homeless person collecting aluminum cans found her corpse next to a trash bin behind Cleo's strip club, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Office. Plastic trash bags covered her body.

Orange County detectives are asking the public to help identify a man who robbed and carjacked a bank customer late Tuesday night. A man was making a deposit at the Bank of America on Central Florida Parkway and Orange Blossom Trail when the suspect approached him at the ATM. Deputies said the suspect, who was masked and armed, demanded money. The bank customer suffered minor injuries, the Sheriff's Office said. Deputies later located the bank customer's stolen vehicle.

Authorities in Brevard County announced today they are searching for a "missing endangered" woman who hasn't been seen since 8 a.m. Monday. Nancy Booker was last seen in the area of the Super 8 motel in Melbourne on Harbor City Blvd., Palm Bay officials said. She is known to go to the Daily Bread Soup Kitchen and the South Brevard Sharing Center in Melbourne, officials said. "There is concern for her wellbeing as she has medical issues that could potentially put her in danger without the proper care," authorities said in a statement.

CELEBRATION —A tipster today helped Osceola County detectives track down a key piece of evidence in the investigation into the first homicide in the Disney-developed town of Celebration. After deputies asked for the public's help locating a vehicle registered to a man who lives at the apartment complex where detectives are investigating the death, someone called a tip line. As a result, detectives found the vehicle -- a black 2008 black Chevrolet Corvette -- somewhere in Kissimmee today.

Detectives in Marion County are searching for a man who stabbed and kidnapped a woman Thursday night in Ocala. A man picked up a woman who was walking near the 2500 block of SE 1st Avenue in Ocala when a man pulled over and offered her a ride in an older model pickup, the Marion County Sheriff's Office said. She accepted. At some point, she wanted out, but the man would not let her out, the Sheriff's Office said. The woman told detectives that she and the man struggled and that she was stabbed in the shoulder before the man let her out of the car, the Sheriff's Office said.

Lake County sheriff's detectives said were searching for a man who cheated an elderly Tavares out of a couple thousand dollars. The man, who drives a red Ford truck, came to the couple's home earlier this month and offered to repave their driveway but didn't quote a price, the Sheriff's Office reported. He later demanded they pay him $2,700 for a job another paver later said he could do for $400, detectives said. The homeowner tried to cancel the check after he saw the "poor quality" work, but it already had been cashed.